Saturday, February 25, 2006


Who has which voice type?

Does anyone know where there is information on the distribution of
vocal types, even the basics (soprano, mezzo, tenor, baritone and bass)
in the population? I presume tenors and basses, for example, are rarer than
baritones, but is there data somewhere?

Boy has this question popped up LOT lately - so what do YOU think?

2 Comments:

Blogger KULA said...

I think it's one of those normal distribution, the population is centered and it tapers off as you get closer to the extremes!

6:04 PM  
Blogger Princess Alpenrose said...

Everybody wants to be "special", so it would have to be some pretty scientific data for me to believe anything about the actual % distribution in any one voice type or fach category.

Of course it does get pretty crazy when you get into the sub-fachs or whatever we want to call it, ie Campbell Vertesi is probably correct in saying there are very few actual real live Basso Profundos like himself on the planet.

In my experience, most classically trained female singers turn out to be lyric sopranos. After that, I have no idea.

And debates as to who is what fach still rage on, sometimes even after death, as in the case of Callas. Of course, I think she was a spinto, but that's my bias.

Good luck with this! Let me know if you find a source. It's a very interesting topic!

5:21 PM  

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